Joanne Sam
30 October 2020
International- The trend at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic stands unchanged — the ‘lost’ jobs are at a higher rate in the female population than the male population. These jobs are more ‘caring’ and social jobs — such as education, charity, and hospitality. Although women have been fighting for equal rights in employment for years, the COVID-19 crisis will have a lasting impact on the female labour force in the future.
As the pandemic continues, those who are most affected by it are those who work non-regular jobs — casual or self-employed jobs. In developing countries such as India, a large section of society either work such casual jobs or are self-employed. Men are not as affected by this since a majority of these workers are women. The Deccan Herald reported that “about over 51 per cent of women reported receiving no wages during the lockdown period”.
More women have become unemployed and are staying at home during the pandemic than men (Source- New York Daily News)
Women have been struggling for decades to break stereotypes of the ‘traditional housewife’ where the mother stayed at home to take care of the family while her kids went to school and her husband worked. Although they have made much progress, women still hold more responsibilities than men at home on an average to this day. Thus, many have decided to stay at home during this pandemic to care for their families. The increased rates of women leaving the workforce have done much damage to the decades of efforts put into campaigns and protests to bring more women into work and eliminate the wage gap.
Before the pandemic of 2020, for the first time in the US, the working women population exceeded that of working men. A few women have been called back to work after months of being unemployed and living in a hand-to-mouth state using the unemployment benefits. Cameron—a single mother of two sons—tells Forbes about being called back to work after eight months. Now, she works only one day a week, and the pay is barely enough to support the three of them. As COVID-19 continues to spread various companies worldwide are calling back more of their male employees than their female counterparts.
(Sources- Deccan Herald, Forbes, Financial Express)
Edited by- Hithesh Jain